Question

2 students are considering operating a fruit smoothie stand during their summer break. this is an alternative to summer employment with a local firm, where they would each earn $2865 over the three-month summer period. a fully equipped facility can be leased at a cost of $8130 for the summer. additional projected costs are $2239 for insurance and $2.3 per unit for materials and supplies. their fruit smoothies would be priced at $6.7 per unit. what is the accounting cost if q = 1203?

Answer 1

The accounting cost of running the smoothing stand for the summer is $13,135.90. To find this, we must first figure out which numbers given in the problem are relevant. Since we are dealing with accounting cost (and not economic cost), we know that we can ignore the opportunity cost ($2865 in foregone wages). We also can ignore the price of the smoothies since we do not need to compute revenue in order to determine accounting cost. Thus, the relevant numbers are $8130 for the lease, $2239 for insurance, the per unit cost of $2.3, and the total quantity of 1203. To find the accounting cost, we simply need to add our fixed costs and our variable costs. The fixed costs are given as $8130 and $2239. FC=8130+2239=$10369. Our variable cost, VC=2.3q, and we are told q=1203. Thus VC=2.3(1203)=$2766.90. To find our Total accounting costs, simply add fixed costs plus variable costs. FC+VC=2766.90+10369=$13135.90.